The French Dispatch and Last Night in Soho

Director Wes Anderson has made films including "The Grand Budapest Hotel" that are like pop-up books. His latest visually clever film is "The French Dispatch," which evokes the whimsical spirit of stories in The New Yorker magazine. In this podcast episode, HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano disagree about it, because Marie loves the whimsical nature of it and Mike thinks it wears thin. They agree that it's fun spotting a cast including Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Timothee Chalamet, Tilda Swinton, Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody and Edward Norton. Marie and Mike also discuss "Last Night in Soho," a psychological thriller by director Edgar Wright ("Hot Fuzz" and "Baby Driver"). They both liked the premise about a contemporary English fashion design student who identifies with the fashions and lifestyles of the swinging London of the 1960s, although Mike in particular thought that some of the horror movie-appropriate plot twists were a bit much.